Marchers catch buses to Washington; some are stood up

People heading to the nation's capital for Saturday's Women's March on Washington board a charter bus Friday night outside the MGM Grand casino in Detroit. Other would-be marchers were stood up by a charter company, though some made alternative arrangements, like sharing a ride.(Photo11: Matt Jachman)

Four women left stranded on a downtown Detroit sidewalk Friday night weren't about to let a bus company's snafu keep them from marching on Washington, D.C.

Strangers to each other, except for a pair of sisters from Lansing, the four made a snap decision to drive together overnight to the nation's capital, where they were to join hundreds of thousands of people Saturday for the Women's March on Washington.

Nicole Leveque, Katy Schurig and sisters Tandreka and Anaya Keaton were among about two dozen people, mostly women, stood up by Get On Board Charters, which had been hired to ferry more than 50 people from the MGM Grand Detroit casino to a suburban Washington Metro stop, where they were to take trains to the rally and march near the National Mall.

"This is too important for somebody's being disorganized to mess up," said Leveque, of Ferndale, who said she knew a Detroit-to-D.C. route well and felt comfortable driving it at night.

Anya Keaton volunteered her car. Her sister Tandreka said the Women's March, organized in the wake of Donald Trump's surprise victory in the presidential race, was too important to miss. "I feel awake enough now to make it," she said.

Trump was sworn in as the 45th president on Friday. Participants in Saturday's rally — an estimated 500,000 of them — heard from speakers that included feminist icon Gloria Steinem, pop singer Madonna and filmmaker Michael Moore.

Tandreka Keaton said the march wasn't necessarily an attack on Trump, but a response to some of the human rights issues raised by his candidacy and the coming Trump presidency.

"Hopefully we can come up with a strategy to stand together," she said.

Schurig, a teacher from Grand Blanc, said part of her job is to teach her students kindness, and that participating in the march was a way for her to set an example of kindness. "I want to portray that," she said.

The stranded marchers had paid Get On Board $120 each for the round trip.

They mingled outside MGM with about 100 other women and men who were awaiting two buses from a different company. Protest signs criticized Trump and urged unity across ethnic and gender lines and support for abortion rights. Many of the women wore knitted pink "pussyhats," a response to crude sexual remarks Trump was recorded making in 2005.

Phoebe Hopps, coordinator of the 7,000-strong Michigan march contingent, said earlier Friday that she was "freaking out" over not being able to reach anyone at Get On Board over a period of hours. There was no response to voice mails, and calls directly to a Get On Board salesman were blocked, she said.

A reporter's calls to the salesman were also blocked Friday and Saturday.

Hopps had found seats for several marchers on a bus leaving from another location, and others were discussing carpools, but many intending to go to Washington were left without a way there and back.

Confusion over the situation reigned for about an hour outside MGM, as people shared late-arriving emails, supposedly from Get On Board, saying there had been "technical difficulties" and there would be no bus. Hopps, however, texting and emailing from Washington, where she had been attending a conference, indicated there had been conflicting information and urged participants to proceed as planned until the situation could be cleared up.

By about 9 p.m., though, there was still no bus, and Hopps's messages seemed resigned to the fact that there would be none.